Sadly, the EU Council has adopted the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive (zdnet story via /. - lots more at the BBC). This means that it goes to the European Parliament who have to vote to adopt, ammend or reject it. It's sad it's even gone this far.
The curious thing is the quote from the council, "We are adopting the position for institutional reasons so as not to create a precedent which might have a consequence of creating future delays in other processes" (minister quoted by an anti-patent campaigner). If this quote is true, it implies the council will not debate at length, modify, or worse reject motions because it may create a precedent for the future. Why do we have the council, exactly?